A Midsummer Night's Dream

About the book

Marriage plans in Athens send several young people into conflict with family authority and with one another's desires. In the nearby woods, a quarrel among the fairies brings magical interference into already unstable attachments. Meanwhile, a group of working men rehearses a play for a court celebration, bringing a different kind of imaginative transformation into the same space. Shakespeare moves between these groups with a delight in mismatched perspectives: what is terrifying to one person may be ridiculous to another. The night's confusions turn love, performance, and perception into closely related questions. Songs, arguments, mistakes, and theatrical ambition keep the comedy in motion. The play invites readers to enjoy imagination's freedom while noticing how little control its participants have over the roles they suddenly occupy.

• Love and perception
• Imagination
• Performance

Why read it

For the comic collision of several worlds and the affectionate absurdity of its play within a play.

English text